My coffee shop friend Miss Hang has invited me to her neice's wedding on October 10th. I'm looking forward to seeing what a Vietnamese wedding is like.
The invitation
Yes, the groom *is* a cowboy on the invitation. I wonder what the real bride & groom will wear. 
4 comments:
Only one piece of advice: Bring lì xì; that is, a red envelope containing a monetary gift known by various names in different Asian countries. 200,000 đồng is the usual amount. Vietnamese know very little about other cultures, so they often assume that this is just a universal custom and will often neglect to mention it at all.
@Hyp0xia: Thank you. I've heard about this red envelope custom. But my foreigner friends say that since I'm a guest of the family, I shouldn't do this. What's best?
I don't know how much experience your foreigner friends have with Vietnam, but my own experience tells me that, unless you are a member of either the bride's or the groom's family or you yourself are the bride or groom, lì xì is expected. Keep in mind that a huge number of people there will be "guests" and they're all bringing lì xì. You won't suffer any major consequences if you don't, but people might call you kẹo (stingy) because they tend to expect that a rich foreigner will have no problem parting with $11.21.
Okay, thanks. I have my red envelope ready :)
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